Show non lossy PCM in TIDAL?

Is Roon 1.5 setup by default to show only the MQA album and hide the 16/44 PCM version of the album in Tidal? I have “show hidden Tracks and Albums” enabled already, so how do I have both encodings appear?

On the artist details page, yes, since we are collapsing multiple versions on that screen. In other situations, no, since other screens do not perform that collapsing.

hum, well I guess I always browse by artist. Does this “collapsing” mean I can’t access the 16/44??

If you want to get to other versions, click on the album, then go to the “versions” tab. That’s where they will all be.

It’s not just about quality–in many cases we would show 4-6 album covers in a row. Clean, MQA Clean, Explicit, MQA Explicit, Deluxe, MQA Deluxe, etc. Sometimes the whole width of the screen was consumed by the same cover art over and over–so the goal here is to get all of them behind one cover, and then if you want to drill down to a specific one (because Clean 16/44 Deluxe is your thing), you can do so.

Well, as you are aware many of us have no interest in MQA. Why is MQA the “default” version behind which 16/44 is a drill down? Is there really no user selectable default??

It isn’t the “default”. The sorting follows the same sorting rules we use in many places in Roon. MQA is high resolution content. We treat it as being roughly equivalent to a 2x file when performing quality sorting. If TIDAL released a 24/192 recording, it would outrank the MQA.

“MQA is high resolution content.”

No it is not.

Well, a real disappointment. Looking through the last 100 or so albums I have bookmarked, only a handful are “sorted” in this new way, but more clicks on my part (when compared to the previous update) is a step back for me. The Tidal desktop app (which I hardly ever use) shows both (granted without identification)…

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Can’t you just go into the list of “versions” and pick which one you want as the primary?

There’s no better of example of this than an artist such as Neil Young on Tidal. There used to be a bewildering and frankly annoying number of versions of nearly every single one of his albums in the Tidal library.

Now, they have been tidied up beautifully :heart: .

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Sure, and I will do that (sometimes, when I am not lazy) as I choose albums. When browsing for new artists/albums, a primary use of Roon for me, your default “sorting” is a real let down. Whereas before I simply clicked on the album and choose play (or add to queue, etc.) I now have to discern which version is real “hires” (i.e. 16/44), click on that - if I want to add it to my library I have more clicks to make it “primary”, etc.

It’s several step backs for me.

Why not give the end user some control of this default sorting method? That way, when the next flavor of the month lossy encoding comes along you are a step ahead :slight_smile:

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I second this! MQA is so controversial, can we please have user defined sorting of versions? Or at least a switch to choose between your default sorting and one that puts MQA versions at the end of the list?

To balance the complaint/request, I voice appreciation overall for the large improvements in this release. MQA is a bugaboo though. Please give us some ability to avoid it where possible.

Since you don’t want MQA at all, can you do a bulk edit? Focus on MQA, Select All, Edit Hide? Does that solve the Primary problem?

You would still have to refresh it periodically, for new albums…

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You certainly aren’t forced to use it or anything. It’s an option, not a requirement. You do not have to ever play any MQA tracks if you don’t want to.

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Yes, something like this is possible I think, but it does not really rise to the level of an “inelegant” solution because of the way I use Roon+Tidal. For example, I like to browse to “Tidal”, then “genre”, then “Jazz”.

If I have to set up a special view (which I have to maintain - refresh, etc.) just to get to 16/44, well JRiver as a front end (or the Tidal desktop) starts to rival Roon UI…

Of course not, but if you take my statement in context, you will see that I am asking for choice in the Roon interface. I don’t have to use MQA but, as it stands now, I have to navigate through versions to get the non MQA versions. I am forced to bypass the MQA option on an album by album basis to play standard versions. All I am requesting is the choice to put MQA last, not first. Are you opposed to that?

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Wouldn’t you do that regardless of a TIDAL Masters release? When there’s choice I listen to each release to find the most favourable. Sometimes the TIDAL Master is best without any unfolding, sometimes it is not (I don’t have an MQA capable DAC.)

Is this thread truly about choice or a platform to share anti-MQA sentiment? I think it is absurd to expect custom options for users’ every whim. Indeed I think the new Versions tab is great and is well thought out … there’s no forcing anyone to do anything. It no different to being presented with an album with two, three or more CD-quality releases.

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“Wouldn’t you do that regardless of a TIDAL Masters release?”

Do what? I don’t follow.

Sure, MQA is controversial so there is very considerable consumer blow-back. But as someone else noted, what if Tidal started to offer DSD, or ABC, or DEF (whatever the next flavor of the month lossy encoding is going to be) - why is MQA privileged above the others? Well their answer so far is that they privilege the “HiRes” version over all else…if only MQA was actually HiRes :wink:

Sure, no one is “forcing”, except they are in fact “suggesting” are they not - MQA is one click and real “HiRes” 16/44 is several clicks away…

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It seems to me that I am asking for choice and all the push back is antichoice. If I do not wish to play MQA, I am forced to use extra navigation to bypass it.

Your comment: “I think it is absurd to expect custom options for users’ every whim” is condescending and inappropriate. This is not a “whim” just because it doesn’t agree with the way you want it. Hurrumph!

Let me use Harvest as an example. There’s no TIDAL Master but there are four versions, all 44kHz 16bit. Am I forced to use the first release? Of course not!

Roon is presenting me with choice. I’ll sample the releases and decide which, if any, that I want to add to my library. If there were a TIDAL Master what would I do different? Maybe I’d skip the Master, but then I may be missing out on something.

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Why do you keep saying that nobody is “forced”? We are talking about which version is “privileged” (one click away) vs. not (drill down, several clicks) and how and why Roon has chosen this particular UI decision, whether users should be given some control of this UI choice, etc.

You make it sound like some Libertarian debate…or something…